[TEC] Mod Tools, HowTo

[maerean_m]

Originally Posted by karamazovnew

Thanks Mihai, I never would've thought to use the game in window mode .
Edit: I'm having trouble with the drop down lists (for example when I try to select the Dial Type) in the Granny Editor. They open for just a second and then close and reset my values to a null value. And is there a way to open the Menu Editor while the game is running?

* I've just tried the drop down list in the Goblin Editor and it works fine. Try using the arrow keys to change the value. (maybe you are opening a list that has so many values that it gets taller than the screen and closes itself).
* The menu editor is started after setting MenuEditor=Yes and clicking on sh5.exe. You'll be asked if you want to start the Menu Editor. That's the (only) way it works. You can change the behavior (the script) while the game is running.

[urfisch]

so, whats the goblin editor for? changing animations? link animations to certain situations? changing the 3d model (this doesnt work, i think)?...i tried to deal with this editor for some hours and still havent learned what it was designed for...

please leave some thoughts on that! thanks.

[karamazovnew]

Originally Posted by maerean_m

* I've just tried the drop down list in the Goblin Editor and it works fine. Try using the arrow keys to change the value. (maybe you are opening a list that has so many values that it gets taller than the screen and closes itself).
* The menu editor is started after setting MenuEditor=Yes and clicking on sh5.exe. You'll be asked if you want to start the Menu Editor. That's the (only) way it works. You can change the behavior (the script) while the game is running.

Got it to work by changing the W7 theme to Windows Classic. Roger on the Menu Editor thing. I love that I can see each script in the game when I click buttons. By the way, is there a "published" list of possible commands in SH5?


However I'm getting an error in Granny when I try to merge *.prt files (I got the following when merging the ROOM_CT.prt file:



Then the editor exits.



@Jimimadrid: as m_maerean said, open the game in Windowed mode. For me it worked at a resolution of 1024*768.

[urfisch]

is it possibe, to edit the particles.dat with a preview in goblin? this would be much easier, than editing it in s3d and trying it in the game...

i already tried to load it into goblin, but it says there are actors missing...dlls. where can i find them and what is meant with actors? and i see no preview of the different effects in the window of goblin. it simply does not work anything with the particles.dat in goblin. it just shows it file structure.

@kara
i also had this exit due to writing in protected memory.

[karamazovnew]

Originally Posted by urfisch

is it possibe, to edit the particles.dat with a preview in goblin? this would be much easier, than editing it in s3d and trying it in the game...

i already tried to load it into goblin, but it says there are actors missing...dlls. where can i find them and what is meant with actors? and i see no preview of the different effects in the window of goblin. it simply does not work anything with the particles.dat in goblin. it just shows it file structure.

@kara
i also had this exit due to writing in protected memory.

Start the Damage editor and you'll see the animations. Not sure how much that helps, I've never modded particles.

[maerean_m]

This is from a technical PM. I encourage you ask your questions on the forum, rather than on PMs because
1. the others will also see the answer and may benefit from it
2. it's a better use of my time, because people have similar questions so I don't have to write the same answer multiple times. Plus I may forget some details on the 3rd time I answer the same question. And I can answer more distinct questions in the same time rather than answering the same questions over and over.
3. I have subscribed to this thread so I receive emails when you ask something. So it's just like a PM, only better

Some questions about entries in the page .ini files:

what are the possible values for these and what do they do?

Color=0xFFFFFF00 (ARGB or RGBA or ?)
Materials=1 (# of materials - associated with Mat x?)
Display=0;No stretch - what are all possible values here and what do they do
Mat 0=data/menu/gui/layout/dialsfdb.dds - figured this one out
MatFlags=0x9 - what are all possible values here and what do they do
TexFmt=0x0 - what are all possible values here and what do they do
Drag=false - item is draggable?
BmpState=1 - what are all the possible values are what do they do?
NeedFocus=true - purpose is?
SelOne=false - ??
IdGroup=0 - ??
StatesColors=0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF - what are the different states? What does each value above represent?


how can I debug scripts in real time? When I have the game loaded I can run the script manager and see my scripts. But how can I change them, save them, and have the game reload them while playing the game (thus testing changes)?

Hello

* Please stop changing the ini files by hand. That was the only way to create UI mods for SH4. Now we have given you the Menu Editor. Use it.
* the colors use the RGBA format
* matflags: 1 for transparency and 8 for bilinear filtering
* MatFlags=0x29 is 0x20 + 0x08 + 0x01. I don't know by heart what 0x20 means, i'll have to look into the DirectX headers. But it's not a value you normally encounter.
* menus use a system that resembles the CSS used in web development, e.g. you create a set of appearance properties (specific for texts, buttons, listboxes) and apply that style for any number of menu items. So StatesColors should usualy be set by means of style sheets (from the Menu Editor). As a bonus, style sheets can be changes while the game is running (very useful for list-boxes that only get filled with content at run-time, e.g. the Combat Log in the bottom right corner of the HUD). The style sheets themselves are stored in the Silent Hunter 5\data\Menu\StyleSheets\German.shss file.
* the FocusableMenuItem (button, check box, radio button) has 4 states: Disabled, Normal, Mouse Over, Pressed. So those are the colors for the 4 states.
* Drag, BmpState, NeedFocus, SelOne - were used in SH3 and are now obsolete (and hard-coded). The SH5 way is to use python scripting to implement your design (good examples can be found in scripts we wrote for the HUD, Navigation map and the Character dialog (the big .py files in data\Scripts\Menu)).

* While on patrol, open the script manager and click on a script from the tree on the left. Do your changes to the script code you see on the right and press the ApplyChanges button. That's it.
* There's a button called ViewGlobals to let you see the variables that the script is working with and see the exposed properties for those variables.
* The script manager has some useful features like text-auto-complete, jump-to-function-definition, find-text and go-to-line-number.
* Also, there's a tab called Class Definitions to see all the classes exported to the python scripts containing the inheritance tree, description, nested types, properties, methods and events.

Mihai

[Heretic]

Thanks for all your help maerean_m, I have a few questions on crew scripting.

1. Can the in-game script manager be used for crew scripts? I looked through it briefly, but didn't see anything I recognized.

2. For Wp:IsCharacterPosture(x) values are A,B,C, etc. What do these represent?

3. I can't get Wp:IsCrewState(B_STATIONS) to ever return true. Setting battle stations in the game doesn't seem to set the trigger.

4. Looking thru animation_info.txt, it appears I should be able to offset an animation. Is that correct? Nothing happens when I add an entry to it.

Thanks!

[idl0r]

hey guys,

maybe i'm just blind but.. i don't find a script console or script debugging stuff.

i found a "Console" key in Commands.cfg but that doesn't work..
so now i need a way to debug some python stuff.
any hints?

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by maerean_m

* Please stop changing the ini files by hand. That was the only way to create UI mods for SH4. Now we have given you the Menu Editor. Use it.

Can you give me a manual that explains what everything on that application does and how to use it?
I'm having problems placing items where I want them with the editor. I fire up the editor, move the item on the screen to the location I want and press save changes. Now in the editor it's placed exactly where I want it. But when I fire up the game to check the change the item isn't where it's supposed to be. What gives?

Can the tools be made independent of the game launcher? I need to be able to test changes NOW, not when Ubi finally decides to get their servers working again. So far today I haven't been able to do anything with any of my mods because I can't access the game due to 'you need an internet connection' or 'invalid username/password' or whatever other reason. This is beyond absurd and totally unacceptable.

[Therion_Prime]

Has anyone figured out how the waypoint editor in the goblin editor works?

The textboxes are all empty after loading GR2s, even merged ones that contain waypoint info.

[reaper7]

Originally Posted by maerean_m

* the FocusableMenuItem (button, check box, radio button) has 4 states: Disabled, Normal, Mouse Over, Pressed. So those are the colors for the 4 states.

I've being trying to create a Ckeckbox in the Menu Editor but The graphics does not display right.
I've created a 112x60 .dds file with 2 states for the switch (On and Off)

Now in the menu editor I add the Control type Ckeckbox.
Point it at the File above and it shows up as Tex Dim 112/60 ok.
I select then crop size in the Selected item dialog box as DX:60, DY:60.
I then set the start coordinates as X:1, Y:1 and this is what I get my graphics are cut nearly in half with No stretch selected.

What is going on
I have tried every value in the Tex Crop and still can not get the switch to display fully.

If I copy an existing Ckeckbox e.g. the AutoUpdate Ckeckbox for Auto/Manual switching and paste it in - it displays ok.
But if I recreate that Ckeckbox using exactly the same dimensions it displays in the Menu Editor, It gets cut up like my switch.

Somethings not working right In the Menu Editor when you create New Checkboxs. Is there a way around this.

[bigboywooly]

Any tutorial for the mission editor ?
Can we edit the nodes
How about editing the node startpoints like Kiel where I guess you need to add the names of new groups for them to work

Thanx in advance

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by urfisch

i already tried to load it into goblin, but it says there are actors missing...dlls. where can i find them

Have you configured the root dir of the game in the editor? Go into Tools->Options and set the game's home dir up, as in the 'big' post above:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...4&postcount=33

From that post:

* [very important]setting up the GoblinEditor means typing the folder where the sh5.exe is located in the ActorsDirectory property in the Tools\Options window (e.g. K:\Games\Silent Hunter 5). The actors are the .act files in the SilentHunter5 folder and are the ones holding the code for all the controllers.

[urfisch]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

Have you configured the root dir of the game in the editor? Go into Tools->Options and set the game's home dir up, as in the 'big' post above:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...4&postcount=33

From that post:

yes, i got that. now everything works...but the dat files are damaged, when adding new controller entries - after loading them again.

take a look here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...00&postcount=5

[Heretic]

I found this documentation on using various tools to edit GR2 files. I know very little about 3d modeling, so I don't know how much of this is of any use. I thought I'd post it here so that more knowledgable folks can provide some input as to it's usefullness.

http://gr2decode.altervista.org/docs.html
also this one
http://aoe3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/...f=14,36458,,10